joining me brendan, former communications director for nancy pelosi, and mark mckinnon, distributor to the daily beast. what about the need for prayer, brendan? you've been through budget negotiations and saw the democratic leader nancy pelosi said over the weekend that there is no give on the, you know, fundamental demand about some adjustment on tax rates. >> right. >> top rates, that you can't get enough by capping deductions to make up what you need to get some balance going forward. what about prayer? is that going to be helpful? >> prayer is always helpful and so is trying to work together in a constructive way. i think the meeting the leaders had at the white house with president obama last week, both sides came out and said we have to get something done. i am optimistic. there's a lot of tough issues that have to be worked out but i think they can do it. >> mark, all joking aside, are you as optimistic? i read between the lines and you see speaker boehner clearly wants a deal and, perhaps, has more leverage now with the house republican caucus, but once you get down to the actu